Re: Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
Macharius Send a noteboard - 31/05/2012 02:02:55 PM
It sucks because they're still catering to the lowest common denominator. They want to make an "HD" stream available to someone with a 5mbit connection. Even today, though, the advertised average broadband connection is faster than that but for home users, actual connection speeds are shit - on the order of single-digit or low-double-digit percentages of what people are actually paying for. If you consider only places with fairly high population density, the average connection is advertised to be MUCH faster than that, but isn't since companies and municipalities have de facto monopoly agreements. As the advertised connection speeds increase, so will the supposed quality of the offered streams. The nice thing is that there's no effective technological upper limit on the attainable internet speeds - only companies' profit/loss ratio of upgrading their servies, but there is an upper limit on quality.
Fixed that for you. Can you tell I'm bitter about my service? I live in a major metro area suburb and pay Comcast $55/month for 16Mbit service with SpeedBoost to 20Mbit. I don't think I've ever seen higher than 2Mbit actual down regardless of the day/time. Even using Google Documents for a word processor or spreadsheet is a goddamn pain in the ass: it's slow, unresponsive, and extremely limited in features. "Cloud" services I'd be interested in such as Netflix Play Instantly, fails to appeal since it features so few titles I'd actually want to watch.
In general, I find such technological apologism to be fundamentally flawed when viewed against examples of real-world implementation. You can call that part of the transition effect disruption, but I'm more inclined to believe such restrictions and limitations will continue even after the transition to centralized computing is complete.
Why does Blizzard insist on making me sign onto their servers ... seriously. ? !
- 30/05/2012 12:22:14 AM
1212 Views
It's to stop "pirates." And by "pirates," I mean, "people who play used games." *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:31:22 AM
542 Views
Scary that in order to curb one practice - they are alienating a whole section ...
- 05/06/2012 08:30:15 AM
1094 Views
Close... it's for control, for a variety of reasons. "piracy" and the used game market are the tip
- 07/06/2012 03:21:58 AM
1079 Views
Fair enough. 
I guess used-game concerns are more of a console thing. *NM*
- 07/06/2012 03:54:47 AM
554 Views
I guess used-game concerns are more of a console thing. *NM*
- 07/06/2012 03:54:47 AM
554 Views
too fucking true. which is why I went to play Reckoning (fuck you, Blizzard)
- 30/05/2012 01:58:56 PM
1315 Views
You know that entire studio shut down last week, right? 
No more Curt Schilling for you. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:47:40 PM
545 Views
*sob*
- 30/05/2012 07:03:42 PM
1290 Views
No more Curt Schilling for you. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:47:40 PM
545 Views
*sob*
- 30/05/2012 07:03:42 PM
1290 Views
He shoulda cut himself on the ankle and worn white socks again ...
- 05/06/2012 08:33:46 AM
1016 Views
why was it a poor business choice? The game sold well
- 05/06/2012 07:58:13 PM
1390 Views
You need to have followed the whole story a bit more to understand.
- 05/06/2012 09:14:48 PM
978 Views
It's made me furious too
- 30/05/2012 02:44:58 PM
1382 Views
criminals? what laws, exactly, have been broken?
- 30/05/2012 03:51:39 PM
1366 Views
Re: criminals? what laws, exactly, have been broken?
- 30/05/2012 06:59:49 PM
1287 Views
I guess my thing is that no one makes you buy that car that requires my million dollar gas...
- 30/05/2012 07:03:02 PM
1334 Views
Wow - you just outlined TORT reform in it's most basic premise ...
- 05/06/2012 08:00:04 AM
1005 Views
You know the prototypical hot coffee case was warranted, right? The plaintiff won.
- 06/06/2012 10:52:52 AM
909 Views
Be careful -- the fanboys might hear you...
- 30/05/2012 04:56:15 PM
1169 Views
The funny thing is...
- 30/05/2012 07:48:49 PM
1096 Views
The difference I see is that Steam has an offline mode that (mostly) works. D3 has none. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 08:09:40 PM
556 Views
yah...I only recently got into Steam. and ONLY because I've been moving a lot
- 30/05/2012 09:01:31 PM
1347 Views
It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 30/05/2012 09:26:46 PM
1108 Views
The biggest issues I see right now are bandwith caps & speed.
- 30/05/2012 09:44:10 PM
1067 Views
Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
- 31/05/2012 01:17:58 AM
1084 Views
Re: Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
- 31/05/2012 02:02:55 PM
987 Views
...
are you unaware that some people do drive to the bus-station anyway?
- 31/05/2012 02:36:22 AM
1421 Views
- 31/05/2012 02:36:22 AM
1421 Views
I don't think I've ever used an analogy on the internet that people didn't complain about.
- 31/05/2012 04:46:17 AM
940 Views
- 31/05/2012 04:46:17 AM
940 Views
lol, yah, I just couldn't help it for the sake of the continuity of internet stereotypes *NM*
- 31/05/2012 02:17:05 PM
684 Views
*NM*
- 31/05/2012 02:17:05 PM
684 Views
Re: It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 31/05/2012 01:35:33 PM
1094 Views
Re: It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 31/05/2012 07:22:13 PM
876 Views
Stuff like D3's always-on DRM and phone home schemes in no way contribute to that future.
- 07/06/2012 03:26:08 AM
1019 Views